A wide range of activities lend themselves to cleated footwear. Most such activities are sports or athletics related (for example, golf, football, baseball, mountain or pole climbing, and other sports), where stability and traction are important. In many instances, extending cleats provide better stability and traction then relatively smooth soles.
Although cleated footwear provides these obvious benefits, it also presents some drawbacks. For example, cleats wear out, and need to be replaced. Replacement is often difficult, expensive, and time consuming, since over time and use cleats often become stuck, due to, among other things, corrosion, rusting, and over tightening. Also, each cleat must be individually replaced, increasing the time needed for replacement. These problems are exemplified in the most common replaceable cleat: a cleat with a threaded shaft for threading engagement with a female socket embedded in the shoe sole. Similar problems are presented in rollerblading, skating, and other such activities.
Another problem with cleated footwear or specialized footwear is that it is just that--cleated or specialized footwear. It cannot be readily converted for other uses, such as street or office uses. Many a golfer with an afternoon tee time would prefer to wear just one pair of shoes, easily adaptable from a relatively smooth sole for driving, walking, and working, to a cleated sole for golf.
While attempts have previously been made to overcome some of these problems, deficiencies in the various cleat designs have made them unsuccessful. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,731,406, issued to Young, and entitled "SPORT SHOE WITH QUICKLY REMOVABLE SPIKES," includes many individual spikes each with metal spring washer for holding the cleat, and requires a special tool for removing the cleats. U.S. Pat. No. 3,526,976, issued to Jacobs, and entitled "INTERCHANGEABLE SPORTS SHOE," provides bases with multiple cleats, but requires, for example, screws and a screwdriver to replace the bases. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,607,135, 3,566,489, 4,035,934, and 3,267,593 include similar deficiencies.
Furthermore, the bottom soles of athletic or other shoes have provided a location for the manufacturer's logo on the sole. Sponsors can enjoy additional exposure if their logos are beamed to the TV audience as the athletes expose their shoe bottoms. However, there are no easy ways, if any, to change the information displayed on the shoe soles.
Also, the bottom sole (including the heel) of most every type of shoe often needs replacement or repair. Unfortunately, this is often an expensive and difficult task.
Therefore, a need has arisen for an improved shoe system and method of removing and attaching fixtures to shoes.